Leanne DeVane

director of education and outreach

Leanne DeVane, Director of Education and Outreach for Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, where she oversees multiple vital music education programs for youth throughout Northern New Mexico, grades PreK – 12. Prior to her work with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, she completed twelve years serving the Santa Fe community as Music Education Coordinator for Santa Fe Public Schools. She finished her undergraduate study in Piano Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her graduate study in Music Education with Eastman School of Music. She has also completed coursework in Educational Leadership with New Mexico Highlands University. Leanne formerly taught elementary music and choir on the Navajo Reservation in Fort Defiance, Arizona, as well as eight years of elementary music and choral teaching at Ramirez Thomas and Sweeney elementary schools in Santa Fe.

Leanne is a recipient of the New Mexico Music Educators’ Association Administrator of the Year Award (2017), the City of Santa Fe Mayors’ Excellence in the Arts Award (2016), the New Mexico School Board Association Leadership in Student Achievement Award (2012), and in 2011, was recognized as a leader in music education on the nationally broadcast public radio arts show “From the Top.”

Under her leadership, Santa Fe Public Schools music education programs quadrupled in size and scope, reaching nearly 3800 students in elective programs in band, choir, guitar, piano, and string orchestra. SFPS was, during her tenure, the proud recipient of the National Association for Music Merchants’ “Best Communities in Music Education” for seven consecutive years.